Residential property transactions this year will likely suffer a large drop due mainly to a base effect, a report said Friday.
In a report released by the Korea Center for International Finance and Credit Suisse Group, the number of transactions in South Korea is expected to drop by around 20 percent this year following a record number of transactions in 2015.
The report, however, said the fall in home transactions is not likely to be translated into a slump in the real estate market, as the drop will only mean a reduction from the record number posted last year.
For instance, the number of home transactions declined by 10 percent from the previous month in December, but the chances of a downturn in the residential market remains very slim, the report said, adding the December figure still marked a 19 percent spike from the average for the 2006-2014 period.
In 2015, there were over 1.19 million home transactions, up nearly 33 percent from the average 898,000 for the cited period, according to the report.
The Land and Transportation Ministry earlier said the figures in 2015 reflected an 18.8 percent surge from the previous year.
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)
Home transactions to weaken in 2016
